KUALA PILAH, March 6 — The 1 Strategic Partner Community (1SPC) programme introduced by the Negeri Sembilan government to address drug problems in the state will be expanded nationwide, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said.
He said that the community-empowerment programme was in tandem with the ministry’s aspiration in ensuring the success of its anti-drug campaign which involved the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK) as the lead agency, the Anti-Drug Association of Malaysia (Pemadam), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community leaders and the public.
“In the 1SPC programme, Kuala Pilah is declared Drug Free because it has the best record in terms of community activities towards becoming drug-free and the programme in Kuala Pilah will be used as a model for AADK to expand it to other states.
“In fact, the community empowerment programme in Kuala Pilah has been made a national core project and was tabled at an international anti-drug conference recently.
“It is hoped that with continuous efforts, our aim to eliminate drug abuse in the country can be achieved,” he told reporters after launching the 2019 Community Action Plan for Free-Drug Kuala Pilah here today.
Also present were State Secretary Datuk Seri Mat Ali Hassan, Kuala Pilah Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Hasan Malek and AADK director-general Datuk Dr. Abd Halim Mohd Hussin.
Nur Jazlan, who is National Pemadam president, said the declaration of Kuala Pilah as drug free was based on, among others, the report that 47 villages in the district had met the drug-free indicators.
“Based on international definition, Kuala Pilah meets the drug-free criteria with only 1 per cent of its population in the district involved in drug abuse.
“Based on statistics by AADK until 2017, the ratio of the district’s population and those confirmed as drug addicts was only 0.02 per cent, and under the community action plan, the state government is targeting zero new drug addicts in 2019,” he added. — Bernama
